Worms help a garden grow

Red worms can easily improve any gardener’s garden and compost pile.

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FRESNO, Calif. — For an insect without legs or arms, the worm does a lot of heavy lifting in the garden.

The red worm, or Eisenia foetida, can convert kitchen scraps into nutrient-rich compost. And amateurs and professionals alike can cultivate the little wrigglers in their backyards.

Some gardeners raise worms because they like the idea of using something natural to enhance their flowers and plants instead of fertlizers. And some also like the idea of putting their table scraps to good use by feeding the worms with them.

“Worm castings is one of the best natural composts,” says Carolyn Foxe of Visalia, Calif., who was in the vermiculture business for seven years, raising worms for sale. “It acts like a fertilizer to use on top cover in the garden and in containers.”

Foxe says gardening magazines frequently have advertisements for red worms, which are shipped by mail. A $20 one-pound container of worms has about 800 wigglers. Marilyn Charest, the self-proclaimed “Worm Lady” in Squaw Valley, Calif., pops up on the Internet as a seller of worms, as does the Happy D Ranch Worm Farm in Visalia, Calif.

Once the worms are wrangled, it’s time to give them a home. Gardeners can buy ready-made worm compost bins, some holding up to 12,000 worms. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, as the YouTube video by redwormcomposting.com shows: Think Rubbermaid bin. The shapes are generally square, and some resemble enclosed letter-stacking trays. The worms will work their way from the bottom up, leaving their castings behind.

The Happy D Ranch sells a cylinder-shaped home called the Can-O-Worms for $149 plus shipping.

Gardeners can buy bins with spigots to take advantage of the “liquefied” castings, known as “worm tea.”

Gardener Peggy Ruud says she collects the worm tea in a jar for potted plants. “I sometimes add a little water into the liquid,” she says.

Like people, worms like a comfy bed.

Joyce Jimerson is a master recycler composter in Bellingham, Wash., who has written a primer on composting with red worms for Washington State University at whatcom.wsu.edu.

She recommends a bed of shredded newsprint or newspaper (black ink isn’t toxic to red worms), decaying leaves, peat moss and a handful of soil.

Foxe says grass clippings can provide necessary moisture, and burlap can be used to cover outdoor compost piles.

“Water has to be able to get through it,” she says. “It can act as shade and help retain water and keep the birds out.”

Worms don’t like light and will dig deeper to avoid it. Shade is important for outdoor worm composting.

Jimerson says worms like temperatures between 55 and 77 degrees.

So what can be done when temperatures climb above 100?

“Heat can kill worms more than cold,” Jimerson says. “For an outdoor worm compost pile, you can place it under a tree. Just make sure no sun hits the area at all, or it will fry it. Make sure to give the pile enough water.”

Janet Adams of Fresno is among the Fresno County Master Gardeners who take turns tending to the worm bin at the Garden of the Sun. The public garden uses a 4-by-3- foot wood box, with a layer of coconut husk or coir and shredded newsprint as bedding. Other suggestions are coffee grounds, dryer lint and shredded coffee filters.

She also has a worm composting bin at home.

“It’s some of the richest compost there is,” Adams says. “It makes you feel good about not wasting anything. If a worm compost bin is properly maintained, it will not smell.”

Once a “home” is established, your worms are going to want to eat.

“Worms can eat three times their weight in a week,” Foxe says. “For a pound of worms, you need 3 pounds of a food source every week.”

Adams warns people not to use cooked foods or animal products.

“The worms eat food that decomposes rapidly, such as fruits,” she says. “Watermelon is their favorite food. You can also feed them rotting vegetables, lettuce, anything with a high water content. You wouldn’t want to put a whole peach with a pit inside.”

Gardeners want their worms to multiply and thrive. Don’t expect instant results: “In four months, under ideal conditions, you can have 2 pounds of worms,” Foxe says.

Most gardeners are used to earthworms, so red worms don’t faze them.

However, not everyone likes the squishy feel of worms.

Even a garden devotee such as Adams admits the ick factor about worms.

“I’m not crazy about touching them,” she says. “Gardening gloves are the answer.”